Hotline #23 - February 27, 1998

Five of the eleven members of the Amtrak Reform Council now have been appointed. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R.-Miss.) this week named his three choices. They are former Federal Railroad Administrator Gil Carmichael, former Amtrak board member Paul Weyrich, and former NARP and Amtrak official Joseph Vranich.

Vranich is easily the most controversial. His association with NARP and Amtrak ended decades ago, and more recently he has written a book and many newspaper columns bitterly attacking Amtrak, and advocating replacing the national system with several high-speed rail lines on new rights-of-way. Vranich has allied himself with the Cato Institute and the Reason Foundation, who also would like to eliminate Amtrak, but who probably do not share his views on high-speed rail. There is much legitimate concern that Vranich will join the Reform Council with a pre-set agenda to destroy Amtrak, though he noted in a release this week he will keep an open mind.

The other two members were appointed earlier. Senate Minority Leader Daschle (D.-S.Dak.) appointed Donald Sweitzer, a former Senate staffer with ties to rail labor.  House Minority Leader Gebhardt (D.-Mo.) appointed S. Lee Kling, a banker who is chairman of the Missouri Transportation Commission and who was an Amtrak board member from 1979 to 1981.

The Senate began debating S.1173, the ISTEA bill, yesterday, with more important issues coming next week. They will debate how to allocate new funds that may be added to ISTEA programs -- some, of course, want it all to go to highways, but you should urge your Senators to make sure that transit and intercity rail get their share. Several anti-environment amendments will be offered, the first one likely to be from Inhofe (R.-Okla.), requiring the Administration to dismantle its new air quality standards.

The Coast Starlight has been running only north of Oakland since February 25, with alternate train and bus connections south of there, due to a washed-out bridge near Ventura. Also, all San Diegan service north of Los Angeles was cancelled February 23. South of Los Angeles, passengers are being bussed around a bridge out near San Clemente. This service outage will last at least until March 2.

Union Pacific is threatening to end Metrolink commuter service between Moorpark and Oxnard, Cal., effective this weekend, unless and agreement can be reached with the Ventura County Transportation Commission. UP is raising the rent significantly for commuter trains on its lightly used Coast Line.

Amtrak will extend two Hiawatha round-trips from Milwaukee to Watertown, Wis., under an agreement with Canadian Pacific and the State of Wisconsin. The service will run from April 13 to July 11, during a construction project on I-94, and will also serve Wauwatosa, Brookfield, Pewaukee, and Oconomowoc. Two other round-trips will run off-peak in order to position equipment at Watertown.

There is now more information on how Amtrak will spend the first part of its Taxpayer Relief Act money. Amtrak West will spend $9 million on track improvements and construction of a train facility for the Los Angeles-Las Vegas Talgo service set to begin next year.

Also, Amtrak Intercity will spend $3.3 million on improving its line between Porter, Ind., and Kalamazoo, Mich. This includes upgrades to a swing bridge at Michigan City to reduce mechanical delays, new crossties in Indiana, and new communications facilities in Niles and Michigan City to avoid replacing 90 miles of outdated, buried copper signal cable, as part of the positive train separation program.

The Auto Train terminal in Lorton, Va., will get $8 million to complete a larger reconstruction program, which will cut the amount of time needed to unload automobiles in half, plus a platform extension to allow boarding of the train in one section.